Judge Lourdes A. Rodriguez de Jongh
FY 2015 - 2020, Miami Immigration Court
Judge Rodriguez de Jongh was appointed as an immigration judge in March2008. She
received a bachelor of arts degree in 1976 from the University of Miami and a
juris doctorate in 1988 from the University of Miami School of Law. From 1995 to
March 2008, Judge Rodriguez de Jongh served as an immigration attorney in
private practice in Miami and Tucson, Arizona. During that time, from September
2001 to April 2002,she worked as a staff attorney with the Asylum Program of
Southern Arizona in Tucson. From 1991 to 1995, Judge Rodriguez de Jongh served
as a staff attorney with the Legal Services of Greater Miami American
Immigration Lawyer Association Pro Bono Project. She is a member of the Florida
Bar.
Deciding Asylum Cases
Figure 1: Percent of Asylum Matters Denied
Detailed data on Judge Rodriguez de Jongh decisions were examined for the period covering
fiscal years 2015 through 2020. During this period, Judge
Rodriguez de Jongh is recorded as deciding 388 asylum claims on their merits. Of these,
she granted 90, gave no conditional grants, and denied 298.
Converted to percentage terms, Rodriguez de Jongh denied 76.8 percent and granted (including
conditional grants) 23.2 percent. Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Rodriguez de Jongh's
denial rate fiscal year-by-year over this recent period.
(Rates for years with less than 25 decisions are not shown.)
Nationwide Comparisons
Compared to Judge Rodriguez de Jongh's denial rate of 76.8 percent, nationally
during this same period, immigration court judges denied 66.7 percent
of asylum claims. In the Miami Immigration Court where Judge Rodriguez de Jongh
was based, judges there denied asylum 88.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.
Figure 2: Comparing Denial Rates (percents)
Judge Rodriguez de Jongh can also be ranked compared to each of the 526 individual immigration judges
serving during this period who rendered at least one hundred decisions in a city's immigration court. If judges were ranked
from 1 to 526 - where 1 represented the highest denial percent and 526
represented the lowest - Judge Rodriguez de Jongh here receives a rank of 276. That is 275
judges denied asylum at higher rates, and 250 denied asylum at the same
rate or less often. Ranks are tallied separately for each immigration court. Should a judge serve on more than one court
during this period, separate ranks would be assigned in any court that the judge rendered at least 100 asylum decisions in.
Why Do Denial Rates Vary Among Judges?
Denial rates reflect in part the differing composition of cases assigned to
different immigration judges. For example, being represented in court and the nationality
of the asylum seeker appear to often impact decision outcome. Decisions also appear to
reflect in part the personal perspective that the judge brings to the bench.
Figure 3: Asylum Seeker Had Representation
Representation
If an asylum seeker is not represented by an
attorney, almost all (88%) of them are denied asylum. In contrast, a
significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful.
In the case of Judge Rodriguez de Jongh, 10.6% were not
represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole,
about 19% of asylum seekers are not represented.
Nationality
Asylum seekers are a
diverse group. Over one hundred different nationalities had at least one hundred
individuals claiming asylum decided during this period. As might be expected,
immigration courts located in different parts of the country tend to have
proportionately larger shares from some countries than from others. And, given
the required legal grounds for a successful asylum claim, asylum seekers
from some nations tend to be more successful than others.
Figure 4: Asylum Decisions by Nationality
For Judge Rodriguez de Jongh, the largest group of asylum seekers appearing before her came
from Guatemala. Individuals from this nation made up 46.1 % of her caseload.
Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Rodriguez de Jongh were:
Honduras (26.3 %), Venezuela (10.3%), El Salvador (7%), Haiti (2.1%).
See Figure 4.
In the nation as a whole during this same period, major nationalities of asylum
seekers, in descending order of frequency, were El Salvador (18.1%), Guatemala (15.1%), Honduras (14.7%), Mexico (11.8%), China (10.2%), India (3.7%), Cuba (2.5%), Haiti (1.8%), Cameroon (1.5%), Venezuela (1.3%), Nepal (1.3%), Nicaragua (1.1%), Bangladesh (1.0%).